A FATHER reacted furiously yesterday after he and his wife were ordered to pay almost £1,000 for taking their children out of school for their first family holiday in five years.

Stewart Sutherland and his wife Natasha were fined £1000 for taking their children out of school [PA]

Stewart Sutherland said law makers were “not living in the real world” after he told a court that work commitments stopped him and his wife Natasha and their family from taking a break during school holidays.

Speaking after the case at Telford Magistrates Court in Shropshire, Sutherland, 39, who is a Ministry of Defence guard, said: “The system stinks. The price of a holiday never came into it. I could not get any time off work and the people who make these laws don’t live in the real world.

“They’ve never been put in the ­situation where they’ve got young children, trying to bring up a family, and they’re not shift workers.

“I missed Christmases, I missed birthdays. That’s my decision to do the job I do, but I have as much right to have a family holiday as anybody else, not to be told to take my holiday in winter – which I was told.”

Earlier, the couple admitted failing to ensure their ­children attended school for six days in September last year – the month new attendance ­regulations came into force.

The system stinks. The price of a holiday never came into it. I could not get any time off work and the people who make these laws don’t live in the real world

Stewart Sutherland

Addressing the court, Sutherland said: “The family was breaking down and I had to do something. I stand by that decision, although I have gone about it the wrong way.”

The court heard Sutherland and his wife, who works as a carer, had been issued with penalty notices after schools refused their request to take the ­children on holiday in term-time.

But the couple went ahead and took Rhiannan, 15, Sian, 13, and Keane, six, to Rhodes in Greece for a week.

Yesterday, prosecutor Carol Trigger, appearing for Telford and Wrekin Council, told magistrates Sutherland had refused to pay a resulting £360 fine “on principle” and had advised his wife to do the same.

The fine was doubled when they failed to pay it within 21 days. Mrs Trigger said the prosecution followed their failure to pay. She said: “Their eldest child was in her final and most important year of education. We hope this will encourage them to take ­holidays during the 13 weeks ­ allocated, as many other parents do.”

The couple booked the holiday almost a year before the change in regulations, which ended a policy allowing schools to grant up to 10 days leave a year for family holidays.

Mr Sutherland told the court he and his wife, both shift workers, had found it impossible to arrange leave at the same time and his family “had a right to have a holiday together”.

He said: “I stand by my decision as since we took our holiday the school attendance of all three children has improved. Rhiannan’s deputy head has said her behaviour and outlook have improved 100 per cent and she’s just got an A-star in a French exam.”

Parents were now factoring in fines or lying that their children were ill in order to take term-time holidays, he said. “Because we’ve been honest, we’ve been punished,” he added.

Chair of the bench Mrs Janice Haines said he had expressed his ­situation “very eloquently”.

She fined the couple £105 each for each of the three children – a total of £630. They were also ordered to pay £300 costs and a £63 victim surcharge.